Secret athlete society unveiled
When I first got the chance to read the column “Clothes
make the student athlete” (Feb. 3), I was struck with angst.
The first thing I thought was, “How did he find out?”
Right then, I got a mass text on my phone. It read, “Urgent:
Meeting at the secret elitist headquarters,” which is of
course located under the South Campus fountain.
I quickly rushed to my Adidas bike and peddled as fast I could
with my new Adidas shoes. When I reached headquarters, it was
pandemonium. The phones were ringing off the hook, and there were
athletes literally altering their appearances. A meeting was
called, and our spokesman stood up to talk. He told us that our
“elitist” lifestyle had become compromised and that
everything would have to be shut down. We are now in the process of
rebuilding our dynasty, but it will never be the same due to the
article that published all of our secrets.
In closing, I would like to ask the writer of the article not to
discriminate against all athletes. Most athletes are very kind and
intelligent people, who work hard to make UCLA both academically
and athletically superior. If this is an elitist attitude, then I
guess we are guilty, for I wouldn’t expect less from such a
great school.
Thank you.
Allan Vince Senior, UCLA men’s
volleyball
Student-athlete stereotypes unfair
Your article (“Clothes make the student athlete”)
was very insulting, and I disagree with the message you’re
trying to convey to the student body of UCLA.
To begin with, there is absolutely no possible way that any
regular student or a Daily Bruin journalist like you can comment on
the life of a student-athlete. Like Natalie Golda said, we do have
difficult practice one to two times a day ““ every day ““
on top of our classes. We wear the clothes that we do because of
the rigorous practice schedule that we do have. You try having to
wake up every morning to lift weights, then go to class for 6 hours
straight, and then right after go to a hard practice at 3 p.m. I
challenge you to spend a week in a student-athlete’s shoes.
You go through the experiences that we do, and then write this
column again. No, I’m not talking about a week in the life of
a golfer. How about you try the men’s cross country team
workouts, or maybe even the football team’s workouts.
What are you trying to do by putting this article in the paper?
Are you trying to make us feel stupid? Are you one of those people
who swears that we get all of the answers to tests? That would make
sense.
What does it say about you if you’re losing girls to a
backpack? Let’s be real; it’s obviously not the
backpack or the clothes that are causing the problem.
The most insulting and unnecessary comment in your entire
article was the degrading statement that you made about walking
into a classroom and figuring that a class is easy due to the
number of athletes you see in it.
Don’t believe the stereotype that athletes are dumb or
less intelligent than the rest of the students. Maybe you should
take a minute out of your not-so-busy schedule to walk through the
Morgan Center where you will see the hundreds of student-athletes
that are on the “Director’s Honor Roll,” or
realize that some of us get into this prestigious institution the
same way the rest of the non-student-athletes do. Then, since you
don’t have anything else to do, you can walk through the
study hall and see the many student-athletes studying.
You have a lot of nerve to target the student-athletes and
insult us when we are some of the hardest working students in the
school. I think we’ve earned the right to wear practice
clothes or an Adidas backpack. Maybe your problem is that you envy
our clothing or our roles in this school because your sports career
ended in middle school. Hector, try to do what we do week in and
week out to represent UCLA, and then open your mouth. Until then,
keep it shut.
Hugs and Kisses!
Anonymous UCLA athletes